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KERGUELEN’S VOYAGE TO THE NORTH. 74S
large feale, reduced from a greater drawn by Danifh furveyors from a€ual obfervation,
and finifhed in 1734; I found it however very bad and highly dangerous. In my two
voyages I neglected nothing in correcting it; and I flatter myfelf that all navigators
will be perfectly fatisfied with that which Mr. Bellin is about to publifh from my remarks
and obfervations.
Iceland is as it were nothing but a heap of mountains and rugged rocks, which cut
each other in parallel lines nearly in the direétion of the cardinal points; but between
thefe rocks and mountains are fine vallies furnifhing good pafture for flocks. Thefe
mountains are almoft all barren, and continually covered with ice and {fnow. Many of
the mountains are volcanic, but the moft famous in the ifland, and even in the whole
world, is that called Heckla: in 1766 it vomited forth fuch a prodigious quantity of
{tones that the fea was covered with them for twenty leagues from the fhore in the
fouthern part. It is nowife furprifing that thefe {tones fhould float, penetrated as they
are by fo violent a fire that it confumes all their folid parts. The mountains which are
continually covered with fnow are called Joekul, or Jeckelen; they yield in the fum-
mer large torrents, whofe troubled and dirty waters exhale a moft fetid fmell. In the
neighbourhood of thefe Joekelen there are fome mountains more lofty, but on which ice
is not perpetually found, doubtlefs on account of faltpetre in them, which caufes it to
thaw. A fingular circumftance is noticeable in the Joekelen, they increafe, diminifh,
become higher and lower daily ; every pafling moment adds to or takes from their
fhape; fo that if defirous of following the fteps of any one who the day before fhould
have travelled among them, the traces are fuddenly loft at the bottom of an enormous
accumulation of ice, which it is impoffible to traverfe ; and if it be pafled by a circuitous
route to the right or left, the fteps of the traveller are diftinguifhable again at the fame
elevation, and in the fame line as the former track, which is a proof of the non-exiftence
of the mafs of ice upon the previous day; it muf{t be confefled this phenomenon is
fingular.
‘That travelling is difficult in this country, from this is eafily deducible, there is no
road for carts or carriages ; the mode of travelling and tranfporting of effects is by
horfes ; but in many places there is no means of advancing except on foot, when the
merchants are ebliged to carry every thing on their backs : add to which, the traveller is
not fecure of being able to pafs one year by the fame route he did the preceding ; for
thaws fometimes feparate rocks in twain, which prefents an invincible obftacle, and
torrents rufhing from the mountains, precipitate into the roads heaps of ftones, which
cover and render them impaflable.
Iceland at this time contains more than feventy thoufand fouls: before that terrible
peftilence, known by the name of the d/ack plague, which ravaged the .whole of the
north, in the middle of the fourteenth century, it was much more populous. ‘The Ice-
Jandic annals make no mention of this calamity, it is only known by oral tradition, that
the infection exifted in the valleys, covered with a heavy dew, and that as a prefervative
from death, it was requifite to fly to the higheft rocks.
The maritime part is better peopled than the interior, on account of the prodigious
quantity of fifh which refort to the coafts, and the facility of trading with the veflels of
the company eftablifhed in different ports. It would be much more populous. were it
not for the frequent earthquakes which have oftentimes deftroyed numbers of the in-
habitants, and whatever M. Horrebow, who ridicules. M. Anderfon for his remarks
on the deftructive ignecus eruptions and earthquakes may fay, the recital of M.
Horrebow himfelf will fhew whether or no thefe fires are matters to be lightly efteemed.
This is his own relation of them. ‘ In 1726 fome fhocks of an earthquake were per-
VOL. Is 5 ceived
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